Continuing the discussion from Welcome to the Grow Support category:
Hey all, first timer. I’ve got a biscotti auto in a 3 gallon fabric pot, coco/perlite (70/30). I over did the nutes (general hydroponics) and she’s clawing. I flushed once, now what?
Welcome to the forum.
Do you know your runoff PPM? It looks more like drooping (normal) than it does clawing. I see no signs of excess nutrients.
I’ve done lots of reading but haven’t gotten to understand PPM yet. Just been controlling the PH of water/nutes prior to feed (5.8 to 6.2).
Welcome to this canna family of growers.
I think she looks very healthy. You cant overwater in coco, good chance you flushed all the nutes out, so feeding again is okay.
Cocos happy pH zone is 5.8. 5.5 to 6.2.
Again, welcome to the happy place.
PPM stands for Parts Per Million. It is the amount of nutrients mixed in the water you are giving to your plants. For instance, distilled and RO (reverse osmosis) water (should) have 0ppm. Pure, plain water.
You want the PPM to be around 1,000. You measure this with a TDS meter. TDS is Total Dissolved Solids. So, you measure TDS in PPM’s.
Your runoff should be about the same as what you put in. You can mix nutrients very heavy, or very lightly, and get the same pH. It’s important to get the PPM’s in order, so you don’t under or over feed.
There are three different scales for converting EC to PPM. Make sure you, your meter, and nutrient schedule are singing from the from the same page.
To add upon the great info above. Seedlings, clones, veg stage, and flowering have targeted ppm ranges for each. I have only used jacks 321.
There are many experienced growers who up their ppm due to experience. Seedlings 200 ppm, clones 200 to 300 ppm veg, 600 to 800ppm flower 1000 to 1200 ppm.
City tap water on avg is 153 Ppm.
Your water supply, the lower starting point, the more nutes your plant gets. Your city tap is 220 ppm lets use which is drinkable, your target range is 1000 ppm, then only 780 ppm is your nutes. Hope this helps.
I agree with the other replies they look good to me. Some young plants in coco will appear overwatered. I like to fed more like soil until they become bigger, before starting the daily feeding. But coco is forgiving, and I focus mainly on the new growth for signs of health.
Here is an example of clawing. This is a plant i currently have in flower. I have 3 other plants with the same exact soil mix (this is an experiment) that are not showing any signs of clawing. I also have (painted nails) on all my leaves which tells me she didnt like the mix and it was way too hot for her. Shes in a 25 gal pot. All im doing is watering. I havent added any nutrients since the were transplanted into these 2 months ago.
Thanks for that info. I have been wondering about my tap water with a 270 ppm reading on the 500 scale. So when checking runoff, should you subtract the base ppm of the water, to estimate the nutrients available? Hope this makes sense.
I hand water 2 plants most of the time. I have a Zero Water filter. My starting point is always less than 15 ppm.
RO, reverse osmosis and distilled have starting values of (distilled) 0 ppm, to 15 ppm.
Well water, taps considered okay up to 300 ppm for drinking.
Yes those numbers are part of the total being fed.
